Parker Day is the featured artist at this year's Startup Art Fair Los Angeles, on view Friday January 26th - Sunday January 27th at The Kinney in Venice. Parker will transform one of the mid century modern suites into a freaky art paradise that brings audiences into the sets of ICONS. Through bright colors and textures, Parker shares her body of work within a site-specific installation that differentiates from her traditional exhibitions. The project presents the second edition of ICONS published by Not A Cult and includes an artist talk and book signing.

Startup Art Fair is a contemporary art fair established by independent artists in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Founded by artist and educator Ray Beldner, and former gallery director Steve Zavattero, Startup Art Fair'smission is to provide a professional exhibition venue for independent artists where they can present and sell their work and foster relationships with emerging and established collectors.

British lifestyle brand Superdry continues its global expansion by exploring the connection between art and fashion at the grand opening of their West Coast flagship store at Westfield Century City. To celebrate the grand opening, Superdry has commissioned a series of photographs by LA-based artist Parker Day featuring an iconic cast of the city’s most influential misfits. The exhibition titled “Portraits” presents Day’s first series of black and white photographs alongside a musical performance by rapper and producer Hodgy. Creative Direction by Nathaly Charria.

This month-long installation celebrates the diverse culture of the Superdry brand. With the opening of their West Coast flagship store, Superdry redefines how patron and gallery spaces can coexist within a retail environment. Art and fashion have long drawn inspiration from the muse. This exhibition unifies both industries around a cult group of local style misfits. In her portraits, Day captures the raw essence of each subject, styled in Superdry by @mstr_of_disguise aka Ann-Marie Hoang.

The Festival of Disruption is a music, art, and film festival curated by David Lynch. As part of the festivities, Polaroid Originals partnered up with the David Lynch Foundation to present a creative reproduction of the iconic Red Room portrayed in Lynch’s pioneering television series, Twin Peaks. Festival goers were able to take photos in a reproduction of the red curtain encased set on the unforgettable chevron patterned floor while sitting in the original chairs used in filming. Participants received one unique print shot of their visit to The Red Room using the new Polaroid OneStep 2 instant analog camera, courtesy of Polaroid. Curatorial expert Nathaly Charria was brought on board to steer the project’s creative reproduction for Polaroid and the David Lynch Foundation.

In addition to the Red Room recreation, Charria created an 8x10 Polaroid gallery space to exhibit Duochrome Polaroids shot by David Lynch on the set of Twin Peaks, 2016.

As the European Union signals its distancing from a seven-decade transatlantic alliance, as the United States joins Nicaragua and Syria as the only other nations to demure from the Paris Climate Agreement, as a realignment of global hegemonies occurs before our eyes, there is no better time to reflect on the narrative of globalization. The 14th Factory, a warehouse-sized installation currently open in Los Angeles, is the culmination of a life's work for Simon Birch. A Brit, transplanted to Hong Kong for the majority of his adult life, Birch has lived a life precipitated by the global reality we've all been born into.

Image courtesy of The 14th Factory

The 14th Factory in name pays homage to the Thirteen Factories which served as the West's main trading post in China during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The factories were successively destroyed during the first and second Opium Wars as they became conduits of oppressive and exploitative trade relationships. This history of resource exploitation holds over in the politics of today as the West uses the cheap labor caused by a lack of enforced labor laws and complicit governments to support an unsustainable consumer economy. I recently sat down with Birch for an interview (below) to discuss his vision and experience in creating this epic visual narrative.

Birch's 14th Factory provides a place for reflection. There are no answers there but all too often we remain unaware of the inter-dependence and exploitative nature of our global society fraught with the themes Birch brings to the fore. Collision, crisis, resolution, transformation — the hero myth that Birch calls upon attempts a universality. Balancing the specific and the universal is the story of globalization now as the discourses of postcoloniality do their job, reflecting back on the exploitation of the past to mitigate the exploitative impulse of now. How does one balance development with respect? How does one consume responsibly while honoring the labor involved? How do we proceed conscientiously and how do we elevate the oppressed, both at home and abroad, to a place where they can participate in a meaningful and conscious engagement as a global society based on universal equality? What myths must be created and which myths must remain?

Donation: $18 online and $22 at the door. Youth, Seniors and Military get discounted tickets for $14 online, and residences for the Lincoln Heights neighborhood with a zip code of 90031 are eligible for free entry. Get advanced tickets through See Tickets.

The 14th Factory's "Encounter" campaign introduces the project to LA's creative community through collaboration. A global artist collective created by Hong Kong-based British artist Simon Birch, the 14th Factory invites Mecca Vazie Andrews to connect with the exhibition and space through dance, movement, performance and play. The campaign was released on Instagram as a three part series.

In the Meteor Room piece, Mecca honors family and ancestry. The colors black, white and red represent Trinidad whilst the dance attributes the light of humanity with atmospheric friction.

When I think of meteors, I think of light traveling and part of my process is relating to the idea of time. This piece is about my ancestors and how they are connected to me through light and time.

— Mecca Vazie Andrews

This piece connects to the idea of being present and being a shadow of one’s self. 

— Mecca Vazie Andrews

This piece is inspired by Simon Birch's Inhumans, which Mecca believes presents fighters in a graceful structured and organized "quarrel for no reason." She addresses the conflict of fighting one's self and the science of the human reassembling and regenerating following battle.

“Cruising," a reference to queer meeting spaces, brings together some of Los Angeles’ most iconic, emerging, and historical LGBTQ artists. The program presents a multi-generational perspective that speaks to the diversity of what it means to be queer in 2016 and seeks to honor those who have paved the way for LGBTQ visibility in contemporary culture. With the goal of creating an inclusive, inspiring, and accessible exhibition, “Cruising” is both a nostalgic reminder of yesterday's survival tactics and a call to continue constructing profound queer ecosystems in public space and within the art world.

The opening of “Cruising” will kick off LA PRIDE Festival & Parade on Friday June 10, 2016 with a free preview and curator-led exhibition tour starting at 6PM followed by an 8PM screening of Zackary Drucker’s prodigious films at the City Council Chambers (Located in the West Hollywood Library). Recently Drucker encountered censorship from institutions exhibiting her work and CSW is proud to share her voice uncensored as part of the 2016 LA PRIDE weekend. This screening will consist of “Southern For Pussy,” “Fish,” and “She Gone Rogue.” The later was commissioned by the Hammer Museum and presented at the inaugural 2012 Los Angeles Biennial, subsequently at 2014 Whitney Biennial, acquired by Smith College Museum of Art, and made possible by Luis De Jesus Gallery.

Christopher Street West Association, Inc. is a non-profit organization located in the Greater Los Angeles area. Composed entirely of passionate volunteers, CSW is dedicated to human rights, education, outreach and better understanding within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, as well as the broader community. Founded in response to the Stonewall Rebellion on Christopher Street in New York on June 28, 1969, Christopher Street West conducted the first parade in the world advocating for gay rights on June 28, 1970 in Hollywood, CA. That tradition lives on today in the form of the LA PRIDE Music Festival and Parade, now in its 46th year, taking place in the City of West Hollywood, CA.

CSW engages with event production firm JJ|LA LLC in the production and management of the LA PRIDE Music Festival & Parade.

HERstory, a performance-based experience by Marcel Alcalá, was born May 8, 2015 at SPiN Standard, the Standard Hotel, Downtown LA. Based on the entertainment industry and social media’s fetish of celebrity culture, Alcalá performs as the clown. The history of the clown as an archetype plays an important role on talking about class and McDonalization of society. This piece speaks directly to concept of entrance and paparazzi flashes on the red carpet.

Los Angeles documentary filmmaker Eric Minh Swenson tells the story of Millie Brown's Rainbow Body and her supporting cast in this short video. Eric focuses on documenting the LA art scene through film, photography, and writing. Within the last three years, he's produced nearly 400 films on the art world and is always a familiar face amongst the crowds.

I’d like to jump inside Jim Drain’s paintings and play within each psychedelic intricacy. 

— Nathaly Charria

Jim Drain’s SEEM / SEAMS opened at VSF in Los Angeles on Saturday May 2, 2015. After spending the past decade in Miami, Jim recently moved back to Providence, Rhode Island, where it all began. SEEM / SEAMS presents a series of collage-based paintings derived from the psychedelic and punk rock approach at the foundation of his practice. Jim attended RISD and was a founding member of the art collective Forcefield, a experimental noise band that combined sound, performance, and wearable works.

Silkscreen, magazine, acrylic, color pencil, paper, cotton, linen, burlap, and the Fort Thunder phone list are mixed together with a colorful consciousness that gives thanks to the process. I’d like to live within Jim Drain’s paintings and play within each psychedelic intricacy.